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I'm following this intiative since day one and am impressed by the passion and enthusiasm. Maybe you might able to help me with this little inquiry. As a former employee of a major german manufacturer I know for fact, that US customers were able to order their US vehicles through the dealership and pick those cars up in Ingolstadt. BMW has a similar program. Basically those customers enjoy the BMW or Audi on the german Autobahn (or elsewhere) and then bring it to a harbor where it'll be shipped.
Having said all this, I'd love to pick up my Model 3 in Fremont and drive it all the way through the east coast and ship it from there back home. Does anyone know, if such a program exists or if such a program is technical feasable, since US and Europe most certainly have different power sockets, Hz etc.?

☰ > 3

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I think you may be able to pick up in Fremont, but like you point out, you would not be able to charge it. you would be responsible for the CA tax, import tax, transport, etc... so expect you would end up paying thousands more than taking delivery at home.

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@droeder , hallo und schönen Gruß aus Houston wo ich im Moment auf Geschäftsreise bin!
As a fellow European, I read your post with interest... and was wondering what would motivate this option... the intriguing visit to Fremont, the adventure of the cross country drive in your brand new Model ≡, the hope it could get you the vehicle sooner, or all of the above?
In any case, to @MelindaV 's points, there are indeed a series of challenges... Since T≡SLA will be producing cars for Europe to EU specs/standards at some point (which means a Fremont pick up would not shorten your wait time) I am less concerned with the inability to charge as I would be about all the extra costs... Did you have any idea how much shipping a car across the Atlantic would cost?
Anyways... as much as I would like the idea, I for one will patiently wait & get it delivered in France...
Alles gute!
Michael

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Hello @MelindaV and @Michael Russo thank for the quick reply.
The program run by the big german manufacturers include all the above but the charging problem. That's the cool thing about it. Of course the car will be shipped, since it is shipped anyway. Tax, registration for US etc can all be done easily by Tesla.
But of course you could ride in an american manufactured car with euro specs throughout the US. While I lived and worked in L.A. I drove german specs vehicles with dealership licence plates all the time. No one ever bothered me in those cars, although none of them were even on sale in US by that time. Obviously charging is the problem, which is kind of a bummer. I bet, many many people would do this. Any idea, what exactly is the problem here? Tesla could offer a "converter" with the US delivery option and you'll return it before shipping. Just a thought.

On a sidenote, the shipping costs aren't that expensive. I have shipped a 911 from Longbeach to Bremen once.

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@droeder , interesting... If course, here we would be talking about a US manufacturer (T≡SLA) making it possible for a European customer to pick up his/her EU-spec Model ≡ in California before shipping it across the water... The likelihood could be influenced by others already doing it... I doubt that any of the (previously! ) Big 3 are doing this for the (very) limited number of cars they sel on our continent... Do you know if BMW does it for the X SUVs that are produced in Spartanburg?
That could represent an intriguing reference....
Otherwise I fear it may be a long shot, unless Elon decides to innovate on this point too...
Finally, remember that this would only be for a few years as he is clearly planning a GigaFactory 2 (with car production) in Europe as soon as feasible (will be curious to see where...).

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A quick search on the Internet (thank you Google ) did not deliver anything totally conclusive yet the link below is the closest into I could find before going to sleep (getting late in TX!). Does not look like we Europeans can go do it... So this would leave Elon with the opportunity to be yet again a game changer on this one too... if he wants... http://www.valleyautoworldbmw.com/Performance-Center-Delivery.html

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Ha! That sounds like a nice option! I would love it too. Being from The Netherlands.
All snags seem to be possible to overcome. Shipping is just a 1000 €.
However, it's just possible that all European (EU) sold cars will get final assembly in the current assembly plant in Tilburg in The Netherlands. Tesla does this to reduce import tariffs.
However, import of a used car (it would have done at least 5000+ km in the US) could be cheaper...
I love to hear whether this option will be possible.

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Ha! That sounds like a nice option! I would love it too. Being from The Netherlands.
All snags seem to be possible to overcome. Shipping is just a 1000 €.
However, it's just possible that all European (EU) sold cars will get final assembly in the current assembly plant in Tilburg in The Netherlands. Tesla does this to reduce import tariffs.
However, import of a used car (it would have done at least 5000+ km in the US) could be cheaper...
I love to hear whether this option will be possible.

Yeah, that's my question too. As far as I know Tesla just finishes those Models in the Netherlands, but it is far from CKD.
Do they really do it for tax and customs? I couldn't find anything in the internet.

However, import of a used car (it would have done at least 5000+ km in the US) could be cheaper....

Click to expand...

Again, misunderstanding. The Audi or BMW program takes care of all that. They simply drive around Europe and bring it to a ship. It's still a new car, it still will be imported to the US. But that's what is done anyway!
Basically BMW allows its customers to driver around in Europe before they import the car for them. Same procedure, same initial costs (I assume). The cars have custom plates in Europe, that's the "only" hassle a manufacturer has to overcome.

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Date? Don't know. Shorty after M3 production in US starts?
In Tilburg they currently merge S and X body shells with drive trains and accu packs.
At Tesla they told me: to make shipping cheaper and to reduce EU import duties. Which are less for car parts than for complete cars.

Importing a 'used' car was a supposition / question. Import into EU has to deal with different regulations from import into US, being the other way round.

Ok guys, I guess we need a coordinate action for these. I just double-checked AUDI again. It is described step by step from a US customer point of view. How about this one: we tweet to Elon and through comments to the tweet, we hopefully start some sort of crowd pressure.
Hey, it's worth a try, right? What do you think?

By the way: I somewhere read that the Model 3 caught on camera in the vicinity of Munich charged at a SC with some sort of an adapter. If this turns out to be true, than what's the problem to create one the other way around?

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It would be a nice experience - drive before it ships. maybe in a few years time

It seems that US buyers don't pay a final destination charge and with travel savings, it may work out cheaper than a straight purchase.

I suspect there is some tax code that makes it beneficial in the US otherwise, like declaring it as a used car import, otherwise wouldn't you see, for example, ford offering f150 / mustang pickups in the US?